Pagina's

The week now passed has not been pleasant for Geert Wilders or the PVV. Several PVV MPs have had their dirty laundry aired. In quick succession incidents and 'scandals' surrounding five PVV MPs were revealed and/or rehashed. The PVV fraction in Second Chamber had to hunker down and weather a veritable storm of allegations and sleaze.

First there was Eric Lucassen, whose life was first made difficult by stories of neighbour intimidation and threats to passers-by walking their dogs. Later it emerged that while serving in the army, he had had sexual relations with female subordinates, causing him to be fired from the army after a military court ruled justified charges of sexual misconduct. Immediately in the wake of that PVV MP James Sharpe felt obligated to resign, because the insinuations about him made it impossible for him, he said, to function effectively.

In the mean time, more supposedly dirty laundry is going around on three more PVV MPs. Most of those have already been proven wrong, as for instance the false accusations of wife battery levelled against Dion Graus. He was acquitted before a court, but somehow our 'impartial' MSM consistently fails to note that rather important tidbit.

Further in regard to our MSM, it was quite disappointing to see the two new public broadcasters, WNL and PowNed, both of them great hopes for a right-wing voice on Dutch public TV and radio, did most of the leg work breaking the news and/or rehashing of all these allegations. Star-reporter Rutger van Castricum made a half-hearted promise that this was the start of a campaign to shine a light on MPs of all parties. But I have yet to see any sign that the MSM is serious about tackling the long list (NL) of PvdA MPs and representatives with actual convictions from an actual criminal court on their record. Or the ties to terrorism (Sam Pormes) and pedophilia (Herman Meijer) in GroenLinks.

Over on Gates of Vienna, H. Numan published an essay, basically arguing that one would have to be exceptionally brave, somewhat suicidal, or in possession of a considerable streak of masochism, to stand as an MP for the PVV these days. The left are mounting a campaign to damage members of the PVV where they can, and at the same time scaring off anyone contemplating standing for the PVV in the next provincial elections, next March 11. The left are doing at least some damage: In the polls the PVV are down five seats.

You may wonder why mere provincial elections would have the left in such a state as to mount this rather distasteful campaign. Dutch parliament consists of two chambers. Second chamber is equivalent to the House of Commons in the UK and the House of Representatives in the US. Its members are elected directly (more or less) and the outcome determines the coalition partners in a new cabinet. First Chamber is the Senate (equivalent to the House of Lords in the UK). In Holland members of First Chamber are not elected directly. Rather, they are appointed, based on the results of the provincial elections.

Currently, the new government and the PVV together do not hold a majority in First Chamber, which means that the left members (including those representing the government parties of VVD and CDA) are able to block any legislation sent up from Second Chamber. In fact, in the recent past several members of First Chamber have made threats (NL) to exactly that effect.

In polls before this week, the coalition was doing well, with the PVV doing extremely well. The three parties in the support construction between them held around 80 seats in the polls, a comfortable majority. If the PVV and coalition partners do equally well in the provincial elections, the left in the Netherlands will be finished. The coalition would control both chambers, leaving the left to powerless bleating from the sidelines. Or, to put it more positively, the current right-wing cabinet would have its hands free to put the country back on track, economically and socially.

The damage done to the PVV or the coalition looks to be not of a permanent kind. The most recent polls suggest that the five seats lost by the PVV went to the other two partners in the 'Danish' cabinet. On top of that is seems that the anti-PVV campaign is running out of steam before it has even well and truly started. Where the first scandal was played out big (really big!) in the Dutch MSM, subsequent 'scandals' received ever decreasing attention. The Dutch population seem to recognize the campaign for what it is: The left picking a low-down dirty street brawl, as a last ditch attempt to hold on to relevancy. Especially since much of the allegations, so breathlessly brought as big news by our despicable MSM , deflate to ignorable size after even a little scrutiny. When even minor altercations in a student sports team some twenty years ago are brought to bear you just know that the left is running low on ammo.

One of the more famous quotes of Mahatma Gandhi is: "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win". It would seem that the PVV and Geert Wilders are about to move into stage four of that particularly insightful quote.